There is a reasonable spread of flight opportunities except between 730am and 330pm.

Let's examine how use of the Sterna FASTLINK ferry combined with the Citybus/Ulsterbus would work.

First there is a 3.5 hour bus ride from Edinburgh to Cairnryan on the southwest tip of Scotland. Those schedules are designed to mesh with all ferries except the 4am ferry. Here is the schedule of ferries, each of which takes 2 1/4 hours for the crossing from Cairnryan to Belfast:

040007301130153019302330

So, my bottom line is that AR22 teams could have taken the bus/ferry combination, but most likely they took a flight.

It appears that teams did fly from Heathrow to Dulles, which leaves the issue of "How did they get to Heathrow and do tasks in London?" Here are the flights on December 6 which would answered that first question (all these are BHD LHR 6 December):

I estimate all teams completed the Christchurch area leg before noon and reached the CHC airport before noon. Basic route options to reach Bali were CHC MEL PER DPS or CHC SYD DPS. Here are the flight combinations that would fit the time frames:

Joey/Meghan and at least one other team were sighted exiting the Bali airport parking lot at 11am. There are two flights arriving from Singapore within the hour, and plenty of ways to get from Christchurch to Auckland. I think there should be enough flights for no team to get left behind:From Christchurch to SingaporeEK 419 (19 1653-1808, sch 1655-1815) from Christchurch to SydneySQ 242 (19 1932-0028, sch 1910-0015) from Sydney to SingaporeORJQ 166 (19 2046-2218, sch 2100-2240) from Christchurch to MelbourneSQ 218 (20 0109-0542, sch 0105-0540) from Melbourne to SingaporeORNZ 546 (19 1931-2047, sch 1935-2055) from Christchurch to AucklandSQ 282 (20 0102-0633, sch 0105-0635) from Auckland to SingaporeFrom Singapore to BaliVF 241 (20 0759-, sch 0725-1005) from Singapore to BaliGA 841 (20 0815-, sch 0750-1035) from Singapore to Bali

Some (but not all) less efficient itineraries, if best flights are fullFrom Christchurch via Melbourne or Sydney to Perth as aboveGA 727 (20 0713-, sch 0713-1100) from Perth to BaliORFrom Christchurch via Auckland, Sydney, or Melbourne to Singapore as aboveQZ 8499 (20 0931-1208, sch 0915-1205) from Singapore to Bali

TL;DR: Dave/Connor, Pamela/Winnie, and Max/Katie are first arriving in Bali. The majority of teams is likely to arrive two hours later on one of two flights via Singapore.

« Last Edit: March 04, 2013, 12:14:37 PM by Neobie »

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Found out that Neobie in Chinese means "f*king awesome"! No, really. Look it up!

And can I just say that trying to get all those airports covered on 10 seconds notice about killed me. 3 day leg indeed.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Caroline/Jennifer, Bates/Anthony actually booked a flight to Wellington for making a connection to Christchurch:NZ463 (1802-1902, scheduled 1800-1900) from Auckland to WellingtonNZ367 (1933-2022, scheduled 1930-2015) from Wellington to Christchurch

New information from the press in New Zealand (Plaidmoon Re: TAR 22 Ep 3 "Like James Bond Again"« Reply #119 on: Today at 09:23:10 AM ») does indeed support your dates. The only way you can fit what the article (posted today in a thread higher on this AR22 superthread) is the following:

It appears that there was no way any of the teams could have gone further than the tenting area that night due to their clearing the airport and driving 1 hour to the Rakaia Gorge. If the original schedule of 2.5 hours earlier into Auckland had happened, all teams could have finished leg 3 and then slept in the same tents at the same time, leaving directly for CHC airport in the morning after a "normal" checkin and release.

I don't know for sure if World Race Productions had to change leg 3 to end with a TBC, but it certain appears likely.

Apskip, B/A and C/J weren't in the NZ557 flight from Auckland to Christchruch. According to ZouLy's post at live sightings thread back in November, they were both actually on a two separate flights from Auckland to Wellington and Wellington to Christchurch (see my post above).

The return MUB JNB would be most likely on Nov. 26 or 27 be:4Z8301 1400 1540 or BP211 1420 1600

I remember that there were actual sightings at HKG which would confirm the date for the flights going west and others at JNB which would confirm the date for the flights going north. If anyone can provide those, it would save me a lot of trouble sifting through that thread to find them.

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

That is one I believe a sighting for 2 or 3 teams. What about the rest of them? It is possible that all teams got the same flights, but that bunching on the same first flight is not typical for this stage of an Amazing Race.

That's right. They are are on diff flights we believe, But close, not days apart.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

There is an Insider vid saying that teams travelled for 4 days getting to Botswana.

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"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan